Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BULL THISTLE

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Cirsium vulgare (Savi ) Ten.

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Stafford County, Kansas

Biennial

Height: 20-80 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Stems:

Erect, stout, much branched, leafy, green or brownish, furrowed, spreading coarse-hairy or covered with cob-web like hairs; upper portion conspicuously spiny-winged.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, green, wavy or crinkled, deeply cleft in pinnate fashion; upper surface short coarse-hairy with yellowish prickles; lower surface pale green or grayish woolly along the veins; young leaves elliptic to obovate, initially unlobed but soon shallowly to pinnately lobed; margins with yellowish spines 1/25 to 1/5 inch long; rosette leaves oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 5 to 20 inches long, 1.2 to 6 inches wide, deeply pinnately lobed; lobes in 4-6 pairs, frequently 2-cleft; segments lanceolate to triangular; tips sharp-pointed or tapering to long points, tipped with stout spine to 2/5 inch long, yellow; stem leaves similar but progressively smaller; lobes often linear-lanceolate.

Inflorescences:

Heads, several, terminal and solitary on branches, often appearing clustered, urn-shaped, .8 to 1.6 inches tall, .8 to 2 inches in diameter.

Flowers:

Bracts in 5-8 rows, narrowly lanceolate, .25 to 1.2 inches long,, less than 1/12 inch wide, progressively longer and narrower from outer to inner, cobwebby, spine-tipped, lacking conspicuous ridge on back; ray florets absent; disk florets numerous, 1 to 1.4 inches long, dark purple or rose to pinkish-purple.

Fruits:

Achene, oblong, 1/8 to 1/6 inch long, flattened, white or pale yellow with dark brown streaks, tipped with white or brownish feather-like bristles, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Waste areas, pastures, roadsides, old fields, gardens.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Origin:

Native of Eurasia, now naturalized.

Reproduction:

By seed.

Uses:

Native Americans drank a warm tea of the roots to aid digestion and used the steam to treat muscle stiffness and rheumatism. A tea of the leaves was taken for neuralgia. The roots were also used to treat stomach cramps and were eaten as a food source. The fresh flowers were chewed to cover up the taste of medicines and the achene bristles were used as the tail for blow darts.

Comments:

Bull thistle is an aggressive weed officially listed as a noxious weed in Kansas.

Bull thistle heads and achene bristles